Brewtips - Specialty Ingredients
Coriander and Bitter Orange Peel
Bart Thielges performed an experiment onthe best way to extract flavors from coriander and bitter orange peel. Hisfinal recommendations are to add the orange peels at the start of the boiland the coriander at the end of the boil. You can view the complete text ofhis experiment. (Source: HBD)
Liquid Smoke
If you are interested in brewing a Rauchbier (smoked beer) and don't plan onsmoking your own malts i.e. use "liquid smoke", it is recommended that youavoid those brands which have salt, vinegar or spices in it. Dan Michael identified Wrights brand liquid smoke asa suitable ingredient. It contains only water and and concentrated hickory smoke, no other artificial additives or preservatives. (Source: rec.crafts.brewing - Apr. 5, 1996.)
Using Fruit
Marty Tippin posted the following summary of responses to his questions on using fruit. (Source:rec.crafts.brewing - May 29, 1996):
- Fresh or frozen fruit seems to be preferred over extracts. Extracts canhave a "flat" taste that the real thing doesn't have. However, Tracy Aquilasays he's had great success with raspberry extracts from HopTech andBrewer's Resource. He recommends keeping a bottle on hand just in case...
- 1 lb of fruit per gallon is a good starting point - some said that was waytoo much; others said it might not be enough. Sounds like a personalpreference thing to me. Some of the lighter fruits (strawberries, etc.)might need 1.5 to 2 lbs per gallon; heavier ones like cherries may require less.
- If using fresh fruit, freeze it first to break down the cell walls. Thenthaw it out, mash it up a bit and dump into the fermenter
- Pasteurization of the fruit is an option but apparently isn't necessary;infection is not that big of a risk. If you feel the need, steep theberries at 170F for 30 minutes, cool to 90F and add some pectic enzyme,according to the directions on the package and allow to cool.
- Add the fruit either to the secondary after it's pretty much done or to a"tertiary" fermenter - in any case, provide lots of room for blowoff -things can get pretty violent. Adding to the primary isn't recommended asthe bubbling CO2 can scrub off much of the raspberry aroma.
- Let the fruit ferment for at least two weeks before bottling.
- Use a copper chore-boy to act as a filter at bottling time - there arelots of seeds and pulp that can get into the finished product.
